Londonderry Arms Hotel, 20-24 Harbour Road, Carnlough, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0EU

Londonderry Arms Hotel

A substantial two-storey classical building in the main street of Carnlough village, comprising a three-bay main block with a five-bay annex to the north. The building is grade B2 listed.

The main block faces east with a symmetrical entrance elevation. The outer bays are gabled, surmounted by broken pediments, while the central bay is recessed. Roofs are laid in Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with tall chimney pots visible at the rear. Walls are smooth cement rendered with channelled rustication to the ground floor below a platband and projecting plinth; rusticated quoins mark the extremities of the end bays.

The first-floor windows of the outer bays are rectangular timber sliding sashes, 6 over 6 with horns, set in moulded surrounds topped by triangular pediments on consoles. Each is crowned by a cill formed by the moulded cornice of a three-panelled apron linked to the corniced frieze of the ground-floor window below. Some panes contain Crown glass. Ground-floor windows to the outer bays are tripartite rectangular timber sliding sashes, comprising a central light 6 over 6 with horns flanked by narrow sidelights 2 over 2 with horns, with plain mullions and projecting cills. The first-floor window of the entrance bay is a pair of coupled timber sashes, 4 over 4 with horns. Much creeper covers both floors of the façade.

The main entrance is recessed within a three-centre arch and comprises a pair of rectangular timber glazed and panelled doors with narrow two-pane sidelights in a pilastered surround. Above is a moulded frieze with decorative glazing bars to the fanlight. Painted stone Tuscan columns rise in front to support a plain open porch with timber tongued and grooved sheeting to the underside of the roof.

The five-bay annex to the north has a central entrance. Its roof is slated as the main block, with two chimneys at the extremities (the right chimney common with an adjoining property). Walls are smooth cement rendered and painted white with a black-painted plinth-like band along the base, a plain projecting eaves course, timber eaves board, and cast iron guttering and downpipes. Ground-floor windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, 8 over 8 with horns, and first-floor windows are 6 over 6 with horns, all vertically hung with exposed frames set in plain reveals with projecting stone or concrete cills. Some ground-floor panes are Crown glass. Modern scrolling wrought iron grilles are fixed to ground-floor cills. The entrance is a rectangular timber 4-panelled door surmounted by a plain rectangular fanlight set in a moulded timber frame, recessed between plain rendered pilasters with moulded bases and ornamental plasterwork brackets carrying a moulded cornice. The left-hand pilaster is fractured. Much creeper covers the upper portion of the annex façade.

The south elevation comprises the side wall of the gabled end bay, one window wide. The roof is slated as the main block with a chimney to the left. Walls are smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked, with a moulded plinth and moulded cornice returning from the base of the entrance front gable pediment. Windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, 6 over 6 without horns, in recessed frames with plain reveals and projecting stone cills. A PVC downpipe is present.

A short east wall of a gabled rear block returns from the south elevation, smooth cement rendered and lined with rusticated quoins to the left-hand extremity, a moulded plinth, and moulded cornice. PVC downpipe and painted soil pipe are present. The gabled block extends leftward to a lower wing. Roofs are slated as the main block with oversailing eaves, timber barge boards, and tongued and grooved sheeted soffits to the gabled portion; the wing has a flat roof with asphalt covering on a timber fascia. Walls are rendered with dry dash of mixed black and white pebbles and chippings over a smooth cement rendered base, smooth rendered to part of the gabled portion. The gabled portion also has a smooth cement rendered platband and rusticated quoins to the right-hand extremity and to the left-hand side, now isolated within the mass of walling. Windows are mainly rectangular timber sliding sashes, 6 over 6 with horns, in recessed frames; those to the gabled portion have smooth cement rendered square moulded surrounds, whilst those to the wing are in plain reveals. Ground-floor windows have modern scrolling wrought iron grilles attached to cills. The first floor of the wing has a tripartite window as on the entrance front but with plain glazing and set in plain reveals. The ground floor has two rectangular timber doorways: ledged double doors to the right and a panelled door to the left where the wing steps down. Above the wing and set back is a later attic storey, flat-roofed with asphalt over a timber fascia. Walls are smooth cement rendered. Two windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, 10 over 10 with horns, set in plain reveals. The rear elevation shows roofs of the main front block slated as previously described; the original rear wall is largely obscured by later extensions with rendered walling, smooth to the attic and dry dashed to lower storeys.

The building stands at one end of a terrace facing the main street, with two small balustraded front enclosures to each side of the main entrance porch and along part of the south elevation. Stone balustrading, a later replacement for original plain iron railings, comprises shaped balusters on a low painted stone plinth carrying a broad painted stone coping. The extreme rear of the building backs onto a gabled corner building on High Street, a separate property with rendered walls and slated roofs.